Bruins promote Keith Gretzky to scouting director

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With just a few weeks left until 2013-14 training camp gets underway, the Bruins made some moves Tuesday to shore up their scouting staff. Keith Gretzky, who has been with the Bruins since 2011, will become the new director of amateur scouting, while the organization hired P.J. Axelsson as a European amateur scout and Keith Sullivan as an amateur scout.

General manager Peter Chiarelli fired director of amateur scouting Wayne Smith in early July, and it had long been assumed Gretzky would get the job.

The Bruins have suffered through years of unimpressive drafts, including failures of top picks, with two notable names — Phil Kessel and Tyler Seguin — being shipped out of town after just three seasons each.

The team that made the Stanley Cup Final last season was largely missing players developed in Boston. Seguin and Dougie Hamilton, who spent the Final in the press box, were the only players drafted in the Smith era to make any impact in the playoffs this season.

Gretzky, the brother of Wayne Gretzky, was initially hired as an amateur scout based in Ontario. He will now oversee the team’s amateur scouting in preparation for the draft.

He previously served in the same role for the Coyotes.

Axelsson spent his 11-year NHL career with the Bruins. Axelsson then played for Frolunda HC in the Swedish Elite League before retiring in April. He will be based in Sweden.

Sullivan, who will be based in Omaha, spent four years with the Coyotes and one with the Winnipeg Jets before becoming the GM of the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks last season.